In the manufacture of minute semiconductor devices, it frequently is necessary to align processed wafers or chips (incorporating an array of such semiconductor devices) accurately with respect to some predetermined coordinate system. Such alignment is necessary before the performance of such operations as probing, scribing or sawing wafers and, also, before die bonding and wire bonding chips, in order to separate, manipulate and utilize such semiconductor devices. In the prior art, such alignment usually is accomplished by visual and manual means. An operator, using a microscope or television monitor, visually observes the position of selected elements of the wafer or chip pattern and, using a micromanipulator, positions these selected elements with respect to cross hairs or similar fiducial marks in the microscope or television monitor. Prior attempts to automate this alignment procedure, in order to reduce cost and to improve accuracy, have been unsuccessful.